Mario O’Hara’s “Demons” (Pangarap ng Puso, 2000) is about a pair of young lovers, Nena (Matet de Leon) and Jose (Alex Alano), doing their best to live and love in an increasingly hostile world. Nena (a lovely child grown into lovely young woman, giving a surprisingly lovely performance) is from a rich family in the Negros provinces that owns a series of fishponds; Jose is from one of many poor families commissioned to clean and operate those fishponds. The film traces their relationship as it develops through the years, from childhood into adulthood, from prosperity into deep recession, from a time of peace into a time of violent political turmoil.
Nena and Jose’s reactions to that turmoil is complex–steeped all their lives in Negros mythology, they gradually equate present-day rebels and corrupt army officers with the demons and monsters of their youth. They reply in a number of ways, each according to his or her nature: through political protest, civil activism, armed rebellion, even the composition and recitation of some (very beautiful) Filipino poetry.
